Manoj Leelanivas Sells 30,978 Shares of Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) Stock

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) COO Manoj Leelanivas sold 30,978 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.02, for a total value of $1,115,827.56. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 94,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,413,651.42. This represents a 24.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Juniper Networks Stock Performance

JNPR stock opened at $35.98 on Friday. Juniper Networks, Inc. has a 1-year low of $33.72 and a 1-year high of $39.79. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $37.09 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.82. The company has a market capitalization of $11.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.84, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.14.

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The network equipment provider reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.13). Juniper Networks had a net margin of 5.67% and a return on equity of 7.57%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Juniper Networks, Inc. will post 1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Juniper Networks Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.45%. Juniper Networks’s dividend payout ratio is currently 102.33%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on JNPR. Argus cut Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Juniper Networks from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com raised shares of Juniper Networks from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Juniper Networks in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of Juniper Networks from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Juniper Networks presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.80.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in JNPR. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of Juniper Networks during the 4th quarter worth $38,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 47.8% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,123 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 363 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Juniper Networks by 60.3% during the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,188 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 447 shares during the last quarter. Huntington National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Juniper Networks by 91.9% in the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,263 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 605 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sentry Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Juniper Networks in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $61,000. 91.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks, Inc designs, develops, and sells network products and services worldwide. The company offers routing products, such as ACX series universal access routers to deploy high-bandwidth services; MX series Ethernet routers that function as a universal edge platform; PTX series packet transport routers; wide-area network SDN controllers; and session smart routers.